Jessica Chastain: 'I Couldn't Get A Date When I Was Younger'

She’s drop dead gorgeous but Jessica Chastain admits she couldn’t even get a date when she was younger. The actress revealed all about her feelings towards her sex symbols status when she spoke to the January 2013 issue of Britain’s GQ magazine.

She said about her tomboy childhood: “I always find sex scenes embarrassing. But at times they are necessary – I get that. It’s a huge compliment when someone says you’re attractive, especially when I was such an awkward kid – I was very tomboyish, with very short red hair, running around with cowboy boots on.”

Jessica is still shocked to hear that people are so attracted to her: “So when someone tells me I’m a sex symbol I’m like, ‘what?’. But I’ll take what I can get. That’ll teach all those boys back in Junior High! “In fact, I hope my very first boyfriend, the guy I dated for one month and who broke up with me at the Valentine’s Day Dance – I hope that boy reads this article.”

The thespian worked with the gorgeous Brad Pitt on ‘The Tree Of Life’ and although he had no idea who she was, he was nice as pie.

She revealed: “He didn’t have a huge entourage, nothing like that. He just showed up on his motorcycle on the very first day and went, ‘Hi, I’m Brad.’

"You just heard the rumbling of his bike and he’d appear like James Dean, or Marlon Brando from ‘The Wild One’. He was kind, he was generous, he’d never heard of me but he never made me feel less.”

Hawaii Five-0's Taryn Manning Joins Orange Is The New Black

Netflix's upcoming series from Weeds creator Jenji Kohan has added to the cast for a major recurring role. Taryn Manning of Hawaii Five-0 and Sons of Anarchy will appear on 9 out of the 13 episodes the streaming provider has ordered for Orange is the New Black.

The series stars Mercy’s Taylor Schilling as Piper, an engaged (Jason Biggs has been cast in the role of her fiancé) Brooklyn woman who finds herself behind bars in a federal penitentiary as a result of her long ago college relationship with a drug runner, played by Laura Prepon (That 70’s Show), who is also doing time. Deadline says Taryn Manning will be playing another of the inmates, Tiffany Doggett. The character is described as a wild child from Waynesboro, Virginia who earns the nickname “Pennsatucky” for her Appalachian accent. A born-again Christian, Tiffany still has major anger problems and doesn’t get along well with the other inmates.

Orange is the New Black is based on the book by Piper Kerman, on whose real life experience the main character and plot are based. It’s among a small group of shows Netflix has been working on as they move into the world of original programming. Also on tap are Lillyhammer, Hemlock Grove and the Kevin Spacey project House of Cards. The cast for Orange is the New Black has been coming together nicely, and although the plotline still leaves me with some reservations – women in prison just carries so many connotations – I have to say this show is sounding better all the time.

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The 2013 Pirelli Calendar:Why the Models Aren’t Nude

Recipients of the 2013 Pirelli calendar might be surprised to find that it contains no nude photographs — an obvious departure from recenttradition. “When I told the models there would be no nudity, some of them were disappointed,” laughs casting director Jennifer Starr, who has worked with Pirelli on the calendar for seventeen years. Petra Nemcova was one of them: “I found out only a week before that it wasn’t nude,” she said. “I’d been, like, working out, getting ready, and I was like, 'Oh, I have to wear these?'” Kyleigh Kuhn, on the other hand, was relieved: “I have three brothers."

The decision to cover up was twofold: All of this year’s calendar's models were chosen specifically for their extensive charity work, and it was thought that nudity might, as Starr put it, "dilute the message." Meanwhile, the Pirelli team knew that some women might feel uncomfortable posing nude because of the causes they supported. Kuhn, for example, does a lot of women’s rights work in Afghanistan, and a nude photo could compromise her efforts.

This year’s Pirelli photographer, Steve McCurry, reunited with Starr and models Kuhn, Nemcova, and Summer Rayne Oakes at McCurry’s studio in Long Island City a few weeks ago to look at a version of the calendar. McCurry is known for his photographs of impoverished, war-torn countries; his most famous image, Afghan Girl, became iconic when it appeared on the cover of National Geographic in 1985. Although the Pirelli assignment wasn’t his first time working with fashion models (“I did a couple of shoots in Italy, years ago"), it’s a far cry from the raw photojournalism he’s built his career on.

The models greeted McCurry, who is white-haired and soft spoken, with exuberant hugs and kisses; it was clear that he was unused to such excitement in his studio, which was stacked high with boxes of film. As the models chattered about the calendar and took pictures on their iPhones, he hung back, modestly deflecting compliments and observing the scene quietly with his wide blue eyes. It was easy to see how, over the years, he’d slipped across borders unnoticed and convinced otherwise wary subjects to pose for him.

But it was McCurry’s outsider status that made him ideal for this assignment. The fashion photographers Pirelli has used in the past (most recently: Mario Sorrenti, Karl Lagerfeld, and Terry Richardson) always have their favorite models, Starr explained, which doesn't always leave her a lot of wiggle room with casting. Although McCurry had a hand in the process, Starr had much more flexibility than usual. Since the shoot was also set in Rio de Janeiro, Pirelli wanted to include several Brazilian women; they wound up casting Pirelli veterans Isabeli Fontana and Adriana Lima (who was pregnant for the shoot), as well as actress Sônia Braga and singer Marisa Monte. Images of local street life are interspersed throughout.

When asked if it was a leap to work with fashion models, McCurry shook his head. “There was certainly a fashion component, but there’s also a portrait and location component, which is something I have a lot of experience with,” he explained. “With portraiture, you’re trying to accomplish a sense of beauty, poetry, a sense of place, composition, light, and so on. So really, these photographs are not so dramatically different from a portrait of anybody.”

At the back of the calendar is an index chronicling the causes that each of the eleven models is committed to. Also featured are Elisa Sednaoui, Hanaa Ben Abdesslem, Liya Kebede, and Karlie Kloss. Starr says she also tried for activists Lauren Bush and Christy Turlington, among others, but they had scheduling conflicts and couldn’t do it.

What did McCurry take away from the experience? “There was a lot of waiting around for makeup touch-ups,” he said. “I always thought they looked fine!” As for whether Pirelli would make the charity theme part of their regular repertoire, a rep for the company demurred: “Next year we will probably do something different.”

For the first time since I began this blog five years ago, I can feature the Pirelli Calendar without having to tag the post NSFW.

For 39 years, the Pirelli Calendar has been known for it's risque and artful photos of female and male nudity (like the Sexy Greek Gods calendar from 2011). But this year, the calendar, shot in Rio by photojournalist Steve McCurry, includes images of fully clothed models, actresses and singers along with pictures of Brazil's art and culture. A departure from the past McCurry wanted to focus on women active in charity and let their sexiness and beauty exude from within. In addition to the models, the calendar features several images of Brazil's people, art and culture.The models in the 2013 Pirelli calendar.

Steve Curry talks about shooting the calendar in the "Behind The Scenes" video below:

The 40th edition of the calendar includes 34 color photographs, including 23 portraits of actresses, singers and models, nine photographs depicting Rio de Janeiro’s everyday life, and two pictures of graffiti art and murals.Adriana Lima, who was photographed while pregnant, is joined in the calendar by Elisa Sednaoui, Petra Nemcova, Isabeli Fontana, Sonia Braga, Liya Kebede and Karlie Kloss.

NEW YORK — Yvonne Strahovski is making her Broadway debut this fall, which is pretty cool, especially since she's never actually caught a Broadway show before.

"I don't know if I should be ashamed to say I've never seen one or if I should be kind of proud of it," says the bombshell Australian over coffee. "Probably a bit of both."

Strahovski, who played a CIA agent in NBC's action comedy show "Chuck" and then crossed over to the dark side as a serial killer in "Dexter," plays Lorna Moon in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Clifford Odets' "Golden Boy."

The play, which opens next week at the Belasco Theater, is about a young man torn between his true calling as a violinist and the lure of fast money as a boxer. Strahovski, 30, plays his manager's mistress and is in 10 of the play's 12 scenes.

The play represents something of a return to Strahovski's roots. A University of Western Sydney graduate, she emerged intent on a career onstage and even co-founded her own theater company.

On a whim, she decided to audition for TV shows in America, flew to Los Angeles and landed "Chuck" in three days. "I remember calling my parents and telling them I'm not coming home," she says. "And I never used my return ticket home."

After five seasons in slinky outfits delivering vicious kicks to enemies, Strahovski next found herself in something of a love triangle with Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall in season 7 of "Dexter."

Next month she appears opposite Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand in "The Guilt Trip," and next year she'll be in "I, Frankenstein" with Bill Nighy and Aaron Eckhart.

It was while filming "I, Frankenstein" in Australia that Strahovski went to a comedy festival and was reminded how much she adored performing live. Right about then, Broadway was calling — and she leapt. "There's something completely raw and unique about live theater and it puts you on your toes," she says.

Strahovski says the play is still revealing itself to her and she's stretching her acting muscles alongside a cast of 19 that includes Danny Burstein and Tony Shalhoub.

She recently sat down with The Associated Press to evade questions about whether she survived season 7 of "Dexter," to boast about her unusual gun skills and to complain about her cable company.

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AP: How different is this experience?

Strahovski: Honestly, I do feel a little bit like a fish out of water. A, I've never done a Broadway play. B, I've never seen a Broadway play. C, I'm Australian. And I'm an Australian coming in to do a classic American play that is set in the '30s. It's been challenging on all fronts. AP: What can you tell us about "Dexter"? Do you survive?

Strahovski: I can't reveal much. It's so hard to talk about. And I haven't even caught up with the last two episodes. My cable didn't turn on last night and I was on hold for 40 minutes with Time Warner. You should print that! I was on hold for 40 minutes and nobody answered the phone.

AP: Were you a fan of "Dexter" before you landed a job on it?

Strahovski: I had seen bits and pieces but I had never watched episode after episode. So I actually sat down and watched all six seasons back-to-back for three weeks before I started shooting.

AP: What kind of mood were you in after that?

Strahovski: I was mixed. I was having some weird dreams and when I finally got to the set, everyone was their character. I had a really hard time calling Jennifer 'Jennifer' and not Debra, and Michael 'Michael' and not Dexter. I was so in that world.

AP: Your accents are always pretty good. How do you do it?

Strahovski: My first language was Polish — my whole family is Polish. I'm the only Australian. So I think because of that, I have maybe an ear for different types of sounds and my mouth is used to using different muscles.

AP: What strange skills have you learned in your career?

Strahovski: I know how to punch properly. I know how to kick really well. I now know how to use a gun, especially a 9 mmm Smith and Wesson. I like to think I can defend myself if I ever got mugged, but who knows? In the moment I might shrivel up.

AP: When you have any downtime, where can we find you?

Strahovski: If I got a small amount of time, I would usually probably veg out on the couch to some sort of brainless television. But my cable hasn't been working so I've been spending a lot of time on Skype with my friends. I switch off with my friends and my parents. I seem to live on Skype because my dearest are so far away.

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Kristen Stewart: How I Explained My Nude Scenes To My Parents

In a revealing interview, Kristen talks about how her parents found it ‘difficult’ to watch her nude scenes in ‘On The Road’. Well, that must have been awkward! Kristen Stewart is so dedicated to her craft, she is not shy about doing nude scenes when acting. However, when it comes to her parents watching, it’s a different story! While doing the promotional tour for her risque new movie On The Road, she says nude scenes are not something that she and her parents “engaged or talked about.” Awkward! Kristen, 22, has come a long way since playing the demure and innocent Bella Swan in Twilight, as her role playing Mary Lou in On The Road required nudity and sex scenes. Kristen has had some previous experience of doing nude scenes — she has one in the 2010 film Welcome To The Rileys – but that didn’t make her any more comfortable about having her parents Jules Stewart and John Stewart watch! She talked about how they reacted to her risque scenes to AwardsDaily.com. “I think everyone was really happy that it took a few years for the movie to get made,” she laughed. “My mom came to Cannes. She loved it. She was really proud. I haven’t talked to my dad about it yet,” she admitted. She also said that Welcome to The Rileys was even more challenging for her parents to watch. “Welcome to the Rileys was probably a more difficult movie for a parent to watch. I was so sensitive after that. That character really found its way into me. I was so overtly sensitive about anything, not just overtly sexual, but anything about a young girl. It just rocked me and I think my parents could probably feel that as well. So it was just not something that we engaged or talked about.” “It’s hard to step outside of it. I know it’s funny to talk about it from an outsider’s perspective, like ‘Oh, it must be weird to sit down and watch your ass with your mom’ or whatever, but it’s so weird being on the inside of it. I genuinely don’t feel like… I don’t want to say that I’m watching another person at all because what I love about my job is aspects of life that you relate to, but you didn’t quite know you had in you, can shock the s**t out of you and so the process of making the movie is finding out why you responded that way.” It’s no wonder then that Jules’ favorite movie of Kristen’s is The Cake Eaters, and not On The Road!

The X-files - Frank Spotnitz Wrote Hunted Role For Gillian Anderson

The X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz created his new Tv show Hunted for his former star Gillian Anderson, but had to give the lead role to another actress when production delays left her unavailable for filming.Spotnitz, the brains behind Anderson's long-running sci-fi Tv hit, wrote the title character, secret agent Sam Hunter, with Anderson in mind after she mentioned her dream of playing a female version of Matt Damon's famous action hero Jason Bourne. However, Spotnitz was left "heartbroken" when Anderson had to pull out of the project. He tells Britain's BBC Radio Derby, "Originally it was Gillian Anderson. She actually wanted to play a female Bourne and I wrote this with her in mind and she was hugely helpful actually in developing the script and had millions of ideas, and she's just an amazing actress, who I know well obviously from The X-Files. "But the process took so long and by the time I actually had the green light she couldn't do it. There were other things that she was committed to, which was heartbreaking and left me with this terrible problem of how to find somebody else who could play this very demanding acting role." Spotnitz went on to audition hundreds of actress and eventually hired Australian star Melissa George for the part, and he insists he has no regrets over the casting. He adds, "We looked at 200 actresses in London and New York and L.A. and Sydney. For me, Melissa was the only choice. As soon as I saw her, I realised she was the right one."

2012 is coming to an end, and it’s that time of the year when the Best stuff if nominated or awarded, so here’s the best, hottest, sexiest lingerie photoshoot.This post is also dedicated to the Unknown Model – a species found all over the internet. The super hot model you’ve seen online, and are just dying to find out her name. Doing so, you’re rushing to search more of her, and just miss the moment.So this time, just sit back, relax and enjoy an amazingly sexy photoshoot of an unkown blonde woman in a lingerie photoshoot – one of the best shoots I’ve seen in a long while.More here.++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We recently interviewed Italian-based photographer Yossi Loloi about his current project, Full Beauty, which was born from an interest to explore female fullness, while challenging conventional notions of beauty set by media and society.

What did you initially see in these women that made you want to photograph them nude?“Women of size have always purely fascinated me. Like all things that are unknown I guess there is a natural tendency for one to be either curious or to just end up plain prejudiced. I was naturally curious and wanted to know more, and eventually I developed the need to photograph them.”What were your intentions going into the project with regards to how you wanted to portray the women? Did you have any initial concerns on how this work may be perceived? “My intentions were pretty clear from the first two photos I ever took. I knew I did not have to exploit them or force anything too much. All I was focused on was trying to create the most quiet and intimate, yet contemporary and strong images possible. I knew some viewers might have mixed feelings or even strong reactions to my work but I never took that in during the process. I was concentrated on giving the viewer the opportunity to admire something they rarely get to see.”Where did you find the subjects and how did you entice them into being part of this project?“The models that decided to take part of my project come from different places in the US and Europe. I didn’t have to do anything special to entice them into participating in the project. I guess when your idea matches someone’s belief, it just happens.”The women seem very comfortable in front of camera and also seem to be comfortable in their skin. Are they models of some sort? If not, how did you get them to relax?“Some of my models are or have been erotic models. Others are just women that wanted to be portrayed and that never had any experience whatsoever in front of a camera. There is never a sense of hurry in my photo shoots, and that helped them to relax. It is extremely important to spend some time together talking before taking out the camera.“It’s a very special moment when someone drops their clothes in front of your eyes; you immediately understand it’s a gift that needs to be treated with the highest of respect. It’s a very strong feeling; it’s not the print, it’s not necessarily the exhibition, it’s that feeling you feel that makes you want to shoot again.”Can you describe a typical shoot? Were the women photographed in their homes?“The shoot moves quickly because trust has been established long before, allowing space to concentrate on other things such as the decorations, positioning and lighting. My models have all been very patient and understanding of anything I asked of them. I began taking pictures in hotel rooms, using what I had at my disposal and bringing with me little gear. I have also shot in their homes, although I try not to give too much information on ‘where we are’ in my images, leaving as much of a neutral zone as possible.”There is definitely a sexy undercurrent in some of these images, especially obvious in the images of multiple women being photographed together. Was this something you were conscious about capturing or did this just happen naturally?“To be completely honest I never looked for sexuality or even eroticism, in fact my goal was to shoot them almost expressionless, almost as if they were alone in the room; in some cases I looked for expressive glances.”You started this project six years ago. Have you seen any changes with regards to the way people view the images? For instance, do you believe there is more acceptance now?“To me the fact that Full Beauty has been published, exhibited or written about, that’s a major success. Fashion magazine Vogue for instance, has been showing more curvy women in the past years – that was taboo until not long ago. It’s not only the acknowledgement of ‘fat’ as subversive beauty; it’s the realization that simply anyone can be beautiful.”

Three naked AIDS activists have learned the truth: never to take off their clothes in public.The trio was arrested when they disrobed to protest against the spending cuts in HIV programs in the lobby of House Speaker John Boehner’s office on Tuesday.

The three women with words “Aids cut kills” on their backs had their arms linked with four other men before being taken into custody by police. According to news reports they chanted “people with AIDS under attack, what do,we do? Fight back”

On Thursday, Secretary Clinton is expected to announce a blueprint to end AIDS. The mandatory budget cuts will make this goal nearly impossible, resulting in at least 620,000 otherwise preventable deaths from HIV. The naked protest was timed to coincide with the World AIDS Day march of hundreds of AIDS activists marching from the Democratic National Committee to the offices of Congressional leaders to demand a stop to the sequestration budget cuts that will push the world backwards in the fight against AIDS. In May of 2011, the U.S. funded study, HPTN 052, proved that the AIDS pandemic could be stopped and we could see an AIDS free world in a generation if a small number of people were put on treatment around the world.

“The naked truth is that if President Obama and Congressional leaders like Speaker Boehner allow these budget cuts to lifesaving programs, global health programs will lose $689 million, while domestic AIDS programs will lose $538 million.”, said Eustacia Smith from ACT UP New York.

“Boehner and others in Congress think that they can gut lifesaving programs without any consequences. We are here to bare witness and expose the effect on their constituents.” said, Michael Tikili from QUEEROCRACY.